


any other way?

by damnmysterytome



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Frank confesses his love for Karen, I swear, One of these days I'm gonna use that prompt and it's gonna be Karen confessing her love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-30 00:12:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6399808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damnmysterytome/pseuds/damnmysterytome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the past six months that had passed since the first time Karen met Frank Castle, she’d seen him every few weeks. Mostly out of the corner of her eye while she walked home from work or from the grocery store. Ever since he saved her life by crashing into her car, she’d been electing to walk home. Mostly because she couldn’t afford a new car.</p><p>Karen never called Frank out on being just a little creepy by following her around but if she had to be honest, mostly with herself, she kind of liked knowing The Punisher was never far away. Even if one of the last things that she said to him was that he was dead to her. Frank must have known she didn’t mean it. Why else would he keep coming back?</p>
            </blockquote>





	any other way?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to kamlo-ren on tumblr for helping me with this title!

In the past six months that had passed since the first time Karen met Frank Castle, she’d seen him every few weeks. Mostly out of the corner of her eye while she walked home from work or from the grocery store. Ever since he saved her life by crashing into her car, she’d been electing to walk home. Mostly because she couldn’t afford a new car.

Karen never called Frank out on being just a  _little_  creepy by following her around but if she had to be honest, mostly with herself, she kind of liked knowing The Punisher was never far away. Even if one of the last things that she said to him was that he was dead to her. Frank must have known she didn’t mean it. Why else would he keep coming back?

Sometimes when she’d see him, he’d be close enough that she could actually see his face and see the look he had while looking at her. Just thinking about it would send shivers up her spine. She couldn’t remember the last time that anyone had ever looked at her the way he did.

Six months, four days, and sixteen hours since she first met Frank Castle, Karen returned home to her apartment to know that there was someone else inside. The door wasn’t left wide open, it had been locked still. There wasn’t anything left out to tell her that there was someone in her house, but she could smell the overwhelming smell of gunpowder and peroxide. “Frank?” She called out, setting her purse on the counter in her kitchen.

For a moment when he didn’t respond to her, she wondered if it wasn’t him in her apartment. But when she saw his jacket sitting on her table, she knew it was him. The light was on in her bathroom, leading her into the room. Frank was standing in front of her mirror with his shirt completely off and a pair of tweezers in one hand, his head was down looking at his arm, where he was currently digging a bullet out of his arm. Seeing the sight of him digging a bullet out of his arm churned her stomach and Karen would have lost her lunch… if she had remembered to eat lunch that day.

“Jesus, Frank, you couldn’t do that somewhere else?” Karen said, turning away from him. Frank craned his head back to look back at her once the bullet was in-between the tweezers.

“Sorry, ma'am.” He mumbled, dropping the bullet into the sink. “Didn’t really think it was a good idea to walk into a hospital and ask for help.” Frank added, picking up the bottle of peroxide and dumping it over the bullet hole. Karen didn’t watch, she leaned against the door frame and looked out into the hallway. When he finished patching his arm up, Frank pulled his shirt back over his head and looked at Karen. “I’ll be out of your hair.” He said, balling up the bloodied items and the bullet to toss out in a plastic bag.

When he walked past Karen, she grabbed his arm – the one that hadn’t just had a bullet dug out of it – and looked at him. “Don’t… Please don’t leave.. Just… Stay for a little bit.” Karen pleaded. Frank looked from her hand on his arm and then up to her face, giving her the same look he gave her every time he was close enough for her to look at him. Could he look at her any other way?

“Got any beer?”

A smile formed on Karen’s face and she nodded, releasing her grip on his arm. “I do. Cheap, but it does the job.” She said softly, leaning off the hallway and walking towards her kitchen. She heard Frank’s boots on her hardwood floor as he followed her. She stopped at her kitchen and opened her fridge. It didn’t have much in it, some condiments, leftover take out food from various restaurants around the city, water, and beer. Karen pulled out two bottles of beer and handed one to Frank. He twisted the top off and lifted the bottle to lips and drank like he hadn’t drank anything in weeks. The beer was gone before she could even open hers.

Karen handed hers to him and pulled out the pack from the fridge along with a bag of pizza from the night before. She didn’t bother warming it up, cold pizza was better than no pizza. Frank followed her to the living room and sat on the couch with her, nothing but the noise of them eating and drinking filling the room.

After the third piece and her second beer, Karen spoke. “What are you doing here? Just to dig a bullet out of your arm?” She asked. Frank swallowed the bite of pizza he’d had in his mouth and discarded his crust on the table, looking back to Karen.

“That was just a bonus.” He said with a crooked smile. “I needed to know how you were.” Frank said.

Before Karen could stop herself, the words came out. “I think you’d know, I can see you following me around the city.” She said with a knowing smirk, taking another drink from her bottle. Frank almost seemed embarrassed and Karen almost felt bad about it. Almost. “Sometimes you’re close enough I can smell the gunpowder and coffee on you.” She really wished she as exaggerating, but there were times she could smell it. Whether or not she was imagining it, that was another story. “I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice, or can’t notice.” Frank was still quiet, which wasn’t abnormal. He was a thoughtful man for as loud as he was when he was The Punisher. “Say something.”

“I think I’m in love with you.” Frank said. Karen was a bit taken back by that, she hadn’t figured those would be his exact words. “And I’m terrified.” He admitted. Those were all words that Karen never thought she’d hear him say. When she asked why, Frank laughed bitterly like it should be obvious. “The last woman I loved is the reason I’m the way I am now.” When Karen was silent for a long period of time, Frank grunted. “Say something.”

Karen choose to let her actions speak louder than her words and she reached forward, grasped his chin between her forefinger and her thumb, and crashed her lips into his.

 

 


End file.
